Bollywood, pop culture and a few quirks of the Capital find resonance on social networking websites, as young professionals create witty posters, sketches and doodles around them. SUYASH GABRIEL speaks to a few of them

We are Family
Angel Bedi
Angel Bedi’s alter-ego and artistic brainchild, TheFilmyOwl, struck the right note through its simple-yet-fun, doodle-based work. The 22-year-old National Institute of Fashion Technology graduate employs a variety of city-based themes in her work, including the use of Hinglish for her depiction of “Delhi aunties”, and her caricatures illustrating the typical upper-middle class urban lifestyle. “The dialect of this city drives me bonkers with inspiration,” says Bedi, whose work has bright colours, identifiable faces and unmistakable fonts.

Reel Time Takes
Akshar Pathak
A month ago a series of Hollywood film posters with crisp Bhojpuri titles became a rage on Facebook. So When Harry Met Sally became Humaar Lugai Sally and Inception was called Sapnawa Me Sapnawa Me Sapnawa, the posters got liked, retweeted and shared. The 24-year-old Delhi-based National Institute of Fashion Technology graduate Akshar Pathak, became a mini-celeb. But this is not new to him. For the last year or so he has been putting up witty Bollywood-themed posters and doodles on social networking sites. “None of this is for sale, but the fact that they get shared translates into more clients. It’s flattering,” says Pathak, who is an art director with Zomato. Currently, he has more than 1,20,000 likes on Facebook.

Music on My Mind
Pranav Bhardwaj
“Every song has a visual” says Bhardwaj, a 25-year-old graphic designer, whose muse is music. While sitting at a metro station platform, Bhardwaj decided to sketch, listening to U2’s Vertigo on repeat. As he was sketching, he realised that many influences were working subconsciously to help bring out a unique, well-designed depiction of the song. His work which mainly comprises sketches, graphic designs and illustrations, brings some of rock and pop’s greatest songs titles to life.

From Pearl Jam’s album called Black, depicted as a can of shoe polish, to Sting’s Desert rose depicted by a rose stalk with a beard and a red turban (left), Bhardwaj’s work is influenced by different aspects of the city. “I want to inspire people to connect with music and understand it differently,”he says.

Road Signs
Abhishek Prasad and Samrat Ray
The duo recently came out with a viral collection of minimal posters. These works capture the distinct nuances that characterise the city, which people tend to ignore. An autowallah saying his meter isn’t working, a rickshaw puller inquiring about how many passengers he has to ferry and a parking attendant asking for the car keys — all find a unique representation through doodles in Ray and Prasad’s work. “The unique quirks and charms of different places fascinate us. In fact, we have done something similar for Shillong, Kolkata, Varanasi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The Delhi ones just got more attention as we were more familiar with it,” says Ray.

The two first began working together at an advertising firm called Webchutney and have been collaborating since 2007. “It’s the everyday things that lend character to a city. Our work is like an inside joke for
Delhiites,” says Prasad.